Up the Revolution

I've had just about enough of this capitalist crap that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, can be best run by the "Market". If you give essential, life-saving services over to businessmen, all they'll be interested in is how much profit they can "leveridge" out of the poor sap of a "consumer" - Sod the quality of service or the conditions that the brave rescuers-on-the-ground (or in-the-air) have to endure.

As a past "consumer" of mountain-rescue "services" I'm damned-thankful that my life-saving experience wasn't routed through an Indian call-centre that first tried to get me to self-extract (a.k.a. "have you tried turning it off and on again?"), then put me on hold while they conferred with their line-manager, then raised an order number for a rescue team to be sub-contracted and dispatched some time next Tuesday.

When are the people of this country going to realise that there are certain things that private industry should be allowed nowhere near? Healthcare, armed forces, policing, prisons, royal mail and the EM spectrum...all the things that are essential to underpin the functioning of a civilized society, and that should not be expected to "make a profit" - rather, it must be accepted that they are things that will incur a necessary cost. FFS, you don't expect eating your greens to make a profit, do you? No - it costs a certain amount, but you have to do it to keep your body fueled and healthy.

Sometimes I despair at peoples' greed and stupidity.